About

The amphitheatre's gates open, and the brave gladiators enter the arena, ready to bet their lives on their skill... to win the palms of victory!

Gladiatoris is a board game for 1 to 4 players (up to 6 with Extra Teams!) that recreates Roman amphitheatre combats. You will take the role of a gladiator manager, and will send your Beasts, Slaves and Gladiators to face your rivals’. The winner will be the player with more sestertii after all the combats, no matter if their combatants outlived them or not.

[Puedes ver un resumen de esta página en español en nuestra web / You can see a summary of this page in Spanish on our website.]

In Gladiatoris, you choose a team of fighters, each one of them specialized in a particular combat technique. To achieve victory, you will need good judgement investing your money, combat expertise and the favor of the Gods.

The game portrays gladiatorial fights in an intuitive, vibrant and very fun way, tension building up every game turn. At the same time it has the utmost respect for the historical setting (you can check it on our website). It has been playtested during seven years; its streamlined game mechanics are fast and lethal, making each game thrilling and epic. Our modular board allows for many different types of games, from historically accurate gladiator duels to full battles.

Also, thanks to the Cronos rules (developed during the hundreds of playtesting games) you can pitch a good number of fighters against each other without making the game last longer than expected.

Gladiatoris is a high-quality, Kickstarter exclusive product. We do not plan on a retail release for the foreseeable future.

The miniatures, components and design are top-quality. Gladiatoris' basic box will include 40 miniatures from 21 models (each team has 3 different Gladiators, 3 Beasts from 2 types, and some Slaves). Minis are 28 mm (heroic scale) and they can be used in most other similar games. Gladiatoris has almost infinite replayability, there are many game modes and every game of the same mode is likely to be completely different from the past ones. We know Gladiatoris will be played a lot and we feature the best components to endure heavy use. We expect our favourite games to last! Finally, every component has been carefully and obsessively designed by the authors, our history expert and some of the best illustrators and 3D artists in the business.

Social Achievements: we have three achievement types - likes on Facebook, followers on Twitter and fans on BGG. Every time one of the required numbers is reached on any bar, the community gets a new achievement. Every three achievements, we unlock a new reward, so the print&play version will be bigger and allow for more interesting games!

Components

Rulebook.

Games Book.

40 miniatures (21 different models), including Gladiators, Slaves and Beasts.

14 exclusive dice (12 sided).

20+ two-sided hexagonal board sections.

150+ cards (Fighter, Maneuver and Munera)

130+ counters and tokens (money, wounds, Pavidus…)

Language note: Gladiatoris is a language dependent game that will have an English edition and a Spanish edition. Each backer will be able to choose the language of the game he will receive in a survey that will be sent at the end of the campaign.

TEAMS IN THE BOX

SCUTARII

Gladiators: Murmillo, Secutor and Samnita. Beasts: Lion and Hyaenas. Defensive combat style. Scutarii jump into the arena armed with heavy rectangular shields (scuta) and short swords (gladii). They protect their legs with greaves (ocreae) or leather straps (fasciae), and their right arms with metal bracers (manica). Full description here.

Gladiators: Provocator, Hoplomaca and Thraex. Beasts: Panther and Wolves. Balanced (between offensive and defensive) combat style. The Small Shields fight with a small shield (parmula) they only use in the arena. The Thraex fights with a curved or L-shaped dagger (sica), the Hoplomachus uses a spear (hasta), and the Provocator brandishes a long sword (spatha). Full description here.

Gladiators: Retiaria, Dimachaerus and Laquearius. Beasts: Leopard and Hounds. Level III Slaves! Offensive combat style. The Sine Scuto trade protection for speed and enter the arena almost naked. The Retiarius is the icon of this school; armed with trident and net, armoured with a bracer with shoulder pad (galerus). The Laquearius wields similar weapons, but uses a lasso instead of a net. The Dimachaerus is equipped with two swords, one in each hand. Full description here.

Gladiators: Desultor, Paegniaria and Lusitor. Beasts: Tiger, Lycaons, and Level III Beast Tamer! Level III Physician Scholar Slave! Bloodless combat style. The Acrobats step in the arena during the prolusio, before the actual gladiators, and never fight to the death. They are armed with staves and whips, and make up for their poor equipment with their superb agility and hard training. Full description here.

EXTRA TEAMS

Three new teams that will make your games more exciting and offer more strategic options. You can get them all as part of the RUDIARIUS (Gladiatoris Supporter) pledge level, or each one separately as an Optional Purchase.

These extra teams have 3 identical Gladiators that can be trained all at once for a higher cost (1,500 sestertii per Level, instead of the usual 1,000); on the plus side, they automatically pass sortitio rolls and never lose their Level. A great advantage, especially for battles with several Gladiators per team!

Murmillones. Defensive combat technique. A team specialized in a single Gladiator class, all of them identical: the MURMILLONES ULTORES (“avengers”) cover themselves with their great shields (scuta) and wait for their enemies' attack, ready to launch a fierce counterattack. Their Beasts are the powerful Atlas Lion and a pair of Spotted Hyaenas that fight in pack. Their Slaves don't have special abilities.

9 miniatures, including Gladiators, Slaves and Beasts.

9 new Fighter cards + team banner.

Thraeces. Balanced combat technique between offense and defense. The THRAECES PROPUGNATORES (“defenders”) don't allow their rival to flee, catching them up with ease. The Caspian Tiger jumps already furious into the arena, and the Dholes are skilled hunters. Their Slaves don't have special abilities.

9 miniatures, including Gladiators, Slaves and Beasts.

9 new Fighter cards + team banner.

Retiariae. Offensive combat technique. This team only features female fighters: the Amazon Slaves, so agile that they have Defense Dice since Level I, and the RETIARIAE TRUCES (“wild”), specially trained to combat Beasts. The Cheetah is the fastest fighter in the Arena (Speed 10!), and the Guardian Dogs never flee or lose their attack radius.

9 miniatures, including Gladiators, Slaves and Beasts.

9 new Fighter cards + team banner.

GLADIATORS BOOK

In this book you will find previously unpublished text written by our munera expert, Alfonso Mañas, an international authority known for his research on Rome and gladiators' fights. It will also include original art from the game and a complete glossary. The book will be bilingual (unlike the rest of components; they will be printed either in English or Spanish, as per backer choice).

You can get it as part of the RUDIARIUS (Gladiatoris Supporter) and PRIMUS PALUS (Rome Supporter) pledge levels, or as an Optional Purchase.

You can get these items with any pledge, adding the appropriate amount of money to your pledge. When the campaign ends we will send you a survey asking for the details of your pledge, including which Optional Purchases you want to acquire with the additional money you pledged.

For example, if you want the €105 Primus Palus pledge level and you have pledged for a total of €117 (105 + 12), at the end of the campaign you will be able to state that you want an Extra Basic Dice Set.

The following stretch goals will be unlocked when we raise the funds shown below. We'll add the unlocked components to your pledges.

Some of these stretch goals are marked as Kickstarter Exclusive, meaning they are 1st Edition Limited Only! We are not
planning on any 2nd edition, but we'd like the game to be so
successful that we have to publish a new edition in a few years. In
any case, we swear over Iuppiter Lapis that no Kickstarter Exclusive reward will ever be manufactured again.

More stretch goals to come!

Choose a team of 3 Gladiators, 3 Beasts and a bunch of Slaves, and invest your initial sestertii to upgrade your fighters and improve their chances on the Arena!

Each game comprises 1 to 3 Events with different goals and number of fighters: Slaves devoured by Beasts, Gladiators against Beasts, Gladiator duels... The game is played by turns, but cards in your hand can be used at any time, causing unexpected results (ie: a "Jupiter's Lightning" that scorches an opponent).

You can play short games with just one simple goal, or long and epic campaigns that will be remembered for years to come!

The arena can take various regular shapes, and each reversible section conceals a nasty surprise: hidden pits, spears or boiling oil ponds. You can also fight in narrow settings, recreate historic battles…

The modular board allows for many different scenarios.

If you want to know more about Gladiatoris' rules, you can download a summary with the basic rules here. It will give you a good feel for how the game is played, although to keep it short we have omitted a lot of rules (such as Munera and Maneuver cards, sortitio and missio rolls, the Pavidus rules that keep fighters from avoiding combat...). Please, note that this is just prototype draft and it is NOT how the final rulebook will look like!

The design process of Gladiatoris started in 2009. Since then, we have held many leagues, tournaments and played hundreds of games with both players new to the game and recurring veterans. Not only Gladiatoris has benefited greatly from your feedback and it wouldn’t be near the same finished product without you, but it’s been the love and support we’ve been receiving from you what has driven us to finally publish it.

Shipping costs are not included in your pledge and will be charged after the campaign through our store-based pledge manager, based on the actual cost to ship your pledge and any additional rewards you select. Once the campaign ends, we'll send you a survey for you to provide us all the necessary details.

To help minimize your shipping and customs costs, we will ship rewards through multiple international shipping hubs at our cost. These hubs will then ship all the rewards to the backers in their region. Currently we have shipping hubs in USA and European Union and backers in those countries will not have to pay import duties. For the rest of the world, depending on your region, this will help reduce or eliminate any additional import duties you will be required to pay.

We've tried to get the best fares on shipping costs for every world region. Our current estimate for shipping costs is:

Please, note that these are ESTIMATES ONLY and may change as we unlock more items or if you purchase additional rewards.

All pledges finalized after the pledge manager deadline (i.e. late) will ship from Spain, and will likely incur additional shipping costs and potential delays depending on your location. Shortly before the shipment begins, we will send you a notification so you can change your delivery address if need be. Packages undeliverable due to an incorrect or incomplete address being provided, or failing to notify us in a timely manner of a change of address, will incur additional shipping costs in order to be reshipped. Due to complications with shipping large packages, we cannot ship to PO Boxes.

Both EscenaRYS co-founders discovered their passion for miniature and strategy games as kids, and they have been gamers for more than 25 years. They customized and expanded with home rules many classic games (HeroQuest, Advanced HeroQuest, D&D, Blood Bowl, Mordheim...) and finally they began writing their own (Attic's Mazes, Greek Heroes, Cortes&Moctezuma) and even published some of them (Populii Turoli, Urban Explorers). They work in the Art department of TV and movie productions.

We are proud of our team of illustrators and 3D designers, whose excellent work can be seen here and on our website. We'll let their art speak for them.

- David Temprano. Co-founder of EscenaRYS. TV and movie set designer; has designed the sets (and weapons) of several historical (“Red Eagle”) and variety (“The Voice”) productions; he has also participated in major productions (“Exodus”, “The Promise”). Teacher of Art Direction at the Film School of the Community of Madrid (ECAM).

- Luis Valleaguado. Co-founder of EscenaRYS. An engineer specialized in ephemeral architecture building (TV series, movies…) and teacher of Technical Drawing at the ECAM. Author of the games “Urban Explorers” and “Populi Turolii” (Best Game of a Spanish Author in 2014).

We also enjoyed the help from Alfonso Mañas, Ph. D. with an European Mention in Sports History by Granada University, and author of “Gladiadores: el gran espectáculo de Roma” (“Gladiators: the great Roman spectacle”; Ariel, Barcelona 2013). He is an international authority in gladiatorial games, and has been an integral part on the design of the game, the miniatures and the Games book.

Risks and challenges

All crowdfunding campaigns have inherent risks, especially when estimating production and delivery times, as they are not fully under our control. To minimize the risks, we have chosen a European company with ample experience on this sector; this allows us to keep an eye on the state of production at any time (in-person if need be). They also have a logistics service that guarantees fast delivery to any place in the world.

We are aware that a project of this scope (a game with so many components of different types to manufacture), can suffer from a number of setbacks and unexpected events. Even if this is EscenaRYS' first big project, the authors are accustomed to deal with complications in their usual jobs. We're talking about TV and film: every other day David and Luis have to manage huge setbacks such as accidents, delays from suppliers, last-time changes in the script... And they have to deal with them, finding alternate solutions, on a very short notice, with very little time to spare and staying on budget. Also, Luis has already published two games and EscenaRYS benefits from his expertise in this sector. We know that we are not experts yet, but we are confident that we'll be able to overcome any difficulty.

If it comes to that, we are prepared to deal with a very successful campaign and we can manage a very large number of pledges.

The rules and playtesting, as well as most of the art, are complete, so we can send the game into production shortly after the campaign ends. We estimate that we can begin to send the games to our backers around August of 2017.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

By pledging on this Kickstarter you acknowledge the following:

1. Items shown during the Kickstarter are prototypes and the final product, including models, look, materials, and other content may vary from those shown while the Kickstarter is active.

2. You must confirm your pledge and pay for shipping charges within eight weeks of our email notification asking you to confirm your pledge. Timely shipment cannot be guaranteed for backers who fail to confirm their pledge and/or fail to pay shipping.

3. It is EscenaRYS responsibility to ship your rewards to you. It is your responsibility to provide EscenaRYS with a correct address in a timely manner, and to ensure that the provided address is deliverable by normal methods and standard regional postal services. You accept that the shipping date is only an estimate, and that due to the logistics of worldwide shipping, backers in different countries may receive their rewards sooner than others. Further, you agree that you are responsible for import duties or any other duties, taxes, or fees that may be payable to complete delivery of your items.

4. You have read and agree to the shipping details provided in the Shipping Information section.